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A snapshot of policy trends and successes in the region.
Crime has replaced soccer as the hot conversation topic among business leaders, journalists, construction workers, and secretaries in Central America’s Northern Triangle—El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Although the problems of delinquency, particularly maras (youth gangs) and organized criminal networks, are not new to the region, public skepticism—bordering on contempt—for all three governments’ inability to deal with the issues is rising.
The harsh mano dura programs that began in 2003 deemed mere membership in a youth gang as sufficient for criminal conviction. The strategies have had little effect on crime rates. Homicide levels are the most visible benchmark for gauging fluctuations in violent crime. In El Salvador, the 2006 figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicate that homicide rates have risen to 56 persons for every 100,000 citizens. In Guatemala, the homicide level is 55, and in Honduras it is 52. This compares to a homicide rate of 6.8 for every 100,000 people in the United States.
As worrying as these figures are, they do not accurately capture the daily crime that affects most citizens...
Crime now tops Chile’s domestic political agenda, even though Chileans are comparatively safer than their counterparts in the region. Since 1990, nationwide surveys by the Centro de Estudios Públicos and Fundación Paz Ciudadana consistently point to crime as one of the top two public concerns. The anxieties—fueled by media attention and political posturing—may be overblown. Nevertheless, the government is responding with new initiatives aimed at curbing violence. The approaches and results, however, are open to question.
Citizen demands for greater security parallel an unprecedented rise in crime. In 2007, reported crimes reached the highest level yet, with 2,668 incidents for every 100,000 inhabitants. In fact, since the early 1990s, reported property crime has almost tripled, and personal crime, such as theft, assaults and robbery, has grown twofold. To its credit, Chile is the only Latin American country where law enforcement institutions are generally trusted and praised for professionalism. A May 2008 survey by several Chilean think tanks reports that 57 percent of the population trusts the Chilean national police—the highest level of any institution.
But crime is often the subject of political posturing…
Judicial reform has never been easy. But in countries across the hemisphere, the once-familiar closed-door deliberations are being replaced by oral proceedings. The idea is simple: open courtrooms boost transparency and fairness. In all, 15 Latin American countries have attempted to introduce oral proceedings for criminal cases between 1994 and 2008.
Latin Americans have long been skeptical of judicial systems and courts. According to the 2007 Latinobarómetro report, only 22 percent of the region’s population believes that all citizens have equal access to the justice system—a percentage that has remained constant since 2000. That number dips to as low as 8 percent in Peru and 10 percent in Argentina. A 2007 Gallup poll reveals similar skepticism, with 58 percent of the Mexican public surveyed expressing a lack of confidence in the judiciary and courts.
Generating confidence in the judicial system is crucial for democracy and for economic development…
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AQ's coverage and post-trip analysis of the President's May 2-4 visit.
